Early career

White began his cricket career working his way through the youth structure at Victoria, playing in the Commonwealth Bank Under-17, and later Under-19 Championship series. He showed his prowess with both bat and ball during these competitions, claiming a century, two half-centuries and 17 wickets in the ten matches he played over two seasons. He tended to bat as part of the middle order and bowl as third or fourth change. His first-class debut came in March 2001, aged 17, against New South Wales. Batting at number nine, White scored 11 runs in his only batting inning of the match, and claimed 4/65 coming on as third change bowler. He made one further first-class appearance that season before joining up with the Australian Under-19 cricket team for two youth tests against Sri Lanka.

He captained the AIS Australia Cricket Academy side that toured New Zealand, beating the New Zealand Academy side 3–1 in a four-match one-day series, after a pair of draws in two three-day matches. Soon after, he made his List A debut for Victoria, but the match was rained off after 42.1 overs without White taking any part in the match. White received his first senior man of the match award a few days later for his two wickets and score of 91 batting at number seven during the Pura Cup match against South Australia. He was named as captain of the Australian Under-19 squad to compete in the 2002 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, and led his team to victory in the competition, beating South Africa by seven wickets in the final. White finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer with 423 runs, with two of the other top-four batsmen also being Australian.

Despite his success with the bat during the Under-19 World Cup, Victoria continued to use White as a bowling all-rounder, a de